Anthony McGrath (born 6 October 1975) is an English cricket coach and former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er, who played county cricket for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

from 1995 to 2012. He was a right-handed batsman and bowled part-time right-arm medium pace and twice captained Yorkshire, in the 2003 and 2009 seasons. He is the younger brother of the

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

coach,

Damian McGrath Damian McGrath (born Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1958) played professional rugby league at Batley before embarking on a successful coaching career, which has encompassed both codes of rugby football at club and internationa ...

. In November 2017 McGrath was appointed the head coach of

Essex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 when ...

International career

McGrath made his

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

debut for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

on 22 May 2003. He made 69 in his debut innings and took 3/16. In the second Test against Zimbabwe, McGrath scored his second half-century by making 81. His third Test was against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and he made 34. In his fourth and final Test match he made a disappointing 4 and 13, and took 1/40 before being dropped from the team.

Domestic career

McGrath made his debut in 1995 and was capped in 1999. He spent a year as captain in 2003 before stepping down to concentrate on his international career. He had a successful 2006 season hitting 1,293 first-class runs at an average of over 60. But he became disillusioned by the direction the club was taking after it only narrowly avoided relegation from

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

Division One. It was only after

Darren Gough Darren Gough (born 18 September 1970) is a retired English cricketer and former captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The spearhead of England's bowling attack through much of the 1990s, he is England's second highest wicket-taker in one-da ...

's appointment as Yorkshire captain, and the major signings of

Jacques Rudolph Jacobus Andries "Jacques" Rudolph (born 4 May 1981) is a former South African cricketer who played for Glamorgan and in South Africa with Titans. He attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, a popular and renowned public school located in Pretoria. ...

and

Younis Khan Mohammad Younis Khan PP SI (Urdu: ; Pashto: ; born 29 November 1977) is a Pakistani professional cricket coach and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in all three formats of the game, and is widely regarded as ...

that McGrath became convinced Yorkshire shared his ambitions and he decided to stay. He then declared himself delighted with the new situation at Yorkshire and hoped to stay for as long as possible. After a slow start to the season, perhaps due to the off season situation, McGrath hit 135 not out in the opening

Roses match The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the R ...

of 2007, a one-dayer played at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, and consecutive centuries against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

(

Friends Provident Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

) and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

(

). His excellent form continued as he reached a personal milestone in the rain-affected Championship match with

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

, scoring 188 not out on 16 July 2007. He was appointed as captain for the 2009 season, but stepped down from leading the side in late 2009, as he felt the pressures of the job were affecting his form. Oddly, that season he increased his career best tally to 211, again scored against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. McGrath had a more successful season in 2010 scoring 1,219 first-class runs and, in doing so, passed the thousand runs mark for the third time. He also scored important runs in both the 40 and 20-over competitions. However, knee injuries and sciatica occurred in the next two seasons, which restricted his effectiveness. McGrath retired from professional cricket following the conclusion of the 2012 season. After retirement he worked as a coaching consultant for Yorkshire, and in February 2016 was appointed assistant head coach at

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, assisting his former Yorkshire colleague

Chris Silverwood Christopher Eric Wilfred Silverwood (born 5 March 1975) is a former international cricketer and a former head coach of the England cricket team. He is currently the Head Coach of the Sri Lanka Cricket Team. Early life and domestic playing care ...

Coaching career

In November 2017, McGrath was appointed as the head coach of Essex. In January 2022, he was appointed as the batting coach for the England's T20I series against West Indies.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McGrath, Anthony England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Yorkshire cricket captains Cricketers from Bradford 1975 births Living people Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1969 to 2000 English cricketers of the 21st century